Addiction
by AndImTheQueenOfSheba
Summary: I can't leave you alone." He said, with the same old maniacal, terrifying grin on his face. "I'm like a smoker, or an addict, and you are my cigarettes, my heroin. I'm addicted to you." "But why me?" She replied, backing away fearfully. "Good question."
1. Chapter 1

**_Senior citizens of fanfiction! I summon you to this story that I am ressurecting. Yes, that's right, ANOTHER one. That'll be...three that I've redone now, I do believe. Now, there are two things I'm not so sure about. One is the first name of the "new kid" second is the title of the story. Well, I AM sure about that one. I'm positive it's not the original title. Sadly, I can't remember it. So if YOU remember it, tell me, okay? If you remember anything about the story, tell me via PM, alright? I will use your advice this time...possibly._**

**_I LOVE you guys. Those of you who voted for the new story. Well, I doubt you would remember this one, seeing as the ancients are now few and far between, so, technically, this IS new. And it's not identical to the original, seeing as, once again, I'm writing from memory. But I love you guys because you kept me from, in addition to this, writing a new chapter for every single one of my unfinished stories. You tie-breakers rock._**

**_So yes, that means that this story is the result of your voting. This is my 8000 profile hits celebration party. I get to write, but you get to read. That's the point, right? Because without you guys, I wouldn't be anywhere near where I am right now (on this site).

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In the same old monotonous cafeteria that the three friends ate lunch in five of the seven days of the week, something was different. Not a one of them could guess how soon their safe, protected existences would be threatened. Shifting to something much less safe, and much less protected. One of the three would soon be in tremendous danger, and the other two, one more than the other, would soon be in extreme peril, just for associating themselves with the oddball.

However significant the upcoming threat was, none of the three friends, one much more observant than the rest, noticed anything different. For the time being, at least.

"Another new kid? What's so special about Seaview? It's not like the food is edible." Oliver Oken complained to his two best friends, one of who was examining her reflection in the back of her spoon, and the other, who was asleep.

"You never know. Maybe this one won't be as scary as the last one." Miley replied, setting her spoon down on her lunch tray. Oliver simply nodded, and picked up his chicken patty, before lifting the bun, smelling it, and setting it back down.

"I hear they let Jeff out of Juvie." He stated, trying to keep the conversation going, by mentioning the latest nutcase to leave the school.

Miley shivered at the sound. Jeff had bothered her the entire four months he'd been in attendance at Seaview High. Amber and Ashley liked to tease her for being the theoretical reason he'd tried to throw Jake Ryan off the roof of the school, in supposed jealousy.

"Well _I'M_ officially locking my doors at night."

"They chucked him in the loony bin right after he left the place, though." Lilly announced, waking up from her nap, somehow in the know about what they were taking about.

"So. He's creepy. Creepy people break out of places like that all the time." Miley argued. Lilly just rubbed her eyes with one hand, and started picking at the bun of her chicken patty with the other, like Oliver currently was, the bun being the only edible part of the entire meal.

"He doesn't seem that bad." She added.

"Who?" Miley and Oliver asked in unison.

"Andy Grant, the new kid. He was in my Spanish class right before lunch." Lilly explained. "That's him, right over there." She pointed towards the other side of the room, where an attractive auburn-haired teenage boy was sitting, all by himself.

"Hasn't your mother told you it's not polite to point?" Miley asked sarcastically.

"My mom's been too busy keeping me awake at night to tell me _anything._" Lilly complained, resting her eyes again.

Both Oliver and Miley then turned around to look at Seaview's new student, and the object of Lilly's rude pointing.

"He's already here? I thought he wasn't supposed to start til tomorrow." Miley responded, just as his eyes turned on her. His mouth was smiling, but his eyes were a fiery inferno. His eyes were that of some sort of satanic creature. Inhuman. She felt a chill run through her, and she instantly broke out in a cold sweat. Quickly turning away, she continued to stare into her spoon, attempting to position a strand of her stubborn hair correctly. It refused, jumping back to the wrong place, so she gave up. She wasn't that interested in her hair anymore.

A flash of golden-brown greeted her as she set the spoon down on her tray again, and she instantly felt cooled, as she figured out what the reflection had been. Lilly's eyes had expanded to twice their normal size, and Oliver looked...mad. He only sat there, as Lilly moved her head in what she thought was an inconspicuous way, trying to get Miley to turn around.

Eventually she did, only to see those angry eyes again. He had a smile pasted over his frown, and was looking at her in a mischievous, conniving way.

"Tell me," He started, leaning forward, making Miley uncomfortable, as he set his elbow on the table next to her lunch tray, before resting his head on his palm. "Did it hurt?" Miley obviously looked confused to him, although her expression wasn't bemusement, and was, instead, the shock of having somebody so frightening in such close range, because he then added, "When you fell from heaven?"

Miley just closed her eyes and started rubbing her temples, not believing what he had said, while a quiet satisfied chuckle came, by way of Oliver. Lilly sat, frozen in her seat, not saying a word, only staring at Andy.

"How about you just go away, and I'll pretend you _didn't _just say that?" Miley turned to face him again, her eyes avoiding his. She stared at his mouth, one of the corners of which turned upwards as she did so.

"If that's how you want to be." He replied, simply, the knowing smirk on his face, before he turned and walked away, laughter in the air behind him.

"I'm officially locking my doors _and _my windows." Miley told the others, before inattentively picking up her spoon again.

...

Miley discovered, while going through the rest of her classes that day, that this Andy kid would only be another Jeff. Maybe even another Martha Dunn, the infamous girl who had been expelled a couple of decades earlier for bringing a butter knife to school, planning to use it to stab one of her annoying, bullying, cruel, classmates. COUGHAmber'smomCOUGH.

Not only was Andy in all of Miley's post-lunch classes, but he followed her. He _knew _that he was in all of her classes. Everywhere she went, he was within five steps behind her. Every time she turned around, she saw him.

Miley's malevolent Biology teacher, however, brought the day to a crashing halt when she paired Miley and Andy together at the same table. He kept leaning towards her, breathing on her neck. He smelled like turnips, and the smell burned Miley's nose, like his distrustful face burned her eyes. Miley definitely enjoyed blaming Ms. Kunkle for placing them together, even though it wasn't her fault. She could blame the school board, for buying new desks for all of the science classrooms, forcing them to sit so closely, but it wasn't their fault either. It was all _his. _This creepy classmate of hers gave her the feeling that he had somehow made sure that they had classes together. She wanted to blame him the most, and so she did.

By study hall, Miley had nearly decided to bring a gun to school. She didn't want to end up like Martha Dunn, but Andy was scaring her. He, of course, was the teacher's pet, and an extreme suck-up. Nobody else seemed to be getting the vibe from him that she was.

Even though she didn't wish to talk to Jake either, she was glad to be sitting in a desk near him. Andy, of course, was on the other side, but Miley set her books on the floor to the right of her desk, so that he couldn't come any closer, and scooted closer to Jake.

Jake was attempting to shove a pen down the cast on his arm, to scratch an itch, Miley supposed. He suddenly stopped itching, as she watched him, and muttered some choice words under his breath, as he realized he'd lost the pen cap inside the plaster tube around his lower arm.

"Stupid Jeff Castrowski and his stupid arm-breaking skills." He murmured, unaware that Miley was watching him.

Seaview's most recent, until today, psychiatric facility transfer student, as most of the long-time students liked to call the new kids, Jeff, hadn't succeeded in throwing Jake off the roof, but he _did _succeed in breaking his arm.

After that, of course, the mental health of the new students was looked into much more thoroughly, before they were let in. Miley knew that, had it been a normal, non-famous student whose arm had been broken, they'd still be letting in the obvious psychos, and for that, she was forever grateful.

"Miley?" Jake whispered, when he realized she was watching him.

"Jake?" Miley mimicked.

"Do you want something?"

"Nope. I'm just trying to stay away from the new kid." She whispered, not wanting him to hear her.

"Oh. Good idea. He looks like a freak." Miley knew Jake was only saying that because he was jealous of Andy's good looks, but she agreed with him all the same.

"I had to sit with him in biology." She commented, very aware of how awkward she was making things between them, after the conclusion of their last failed attempt at a relationship.

"Oh yeah? How was that?" He asked, uncomfortably.

"He kept drawing pictures of dead animals in his text book. Then he asked me if I wanted him to tattoo one of them on me."

"Oh. That's…"

"Weird?" She filled the empty space, making the understatement of the year.

"Yes. Very weird." Jake agreed, before he went back to fishing his pen cap out of his cast.

Finally, after a moment of silence, and intense staring, by way of Andy Grant, the bell rang. Miley had never been more happy to hear the bell in her life, and that was saying something.

...

"Hurry up!" Robby Ray called anxiously, from the limousine, while he waited for his daughter and her eccentrically dressed best friend.

He got no reply, only an angry glare from his daughter, when she and Lola climbed into the backseat of the limo, ten minutes after he'd called them.

"What took you so long?" He asked. Hannah took a deep breath, about to explain, when Robby Ray cut in. "Never mind. I don't wanna know."

They sat quietly the rest of the way to the stadium where Hannah's concert was taking place, minus the "pot-bellied pig with a firecracker" joke Hannah's dad tried to tell, resulting in utter silence from the receiving end.

When the limo finally stopped, ending the awkward silence that had filled it's innards for two-thirds of the trip, Hannah and Lola hurried out, and into the more private dressing area that had been set up for the pop star.

"I get a weird feeling from him, Lilly. He's not…right." Hannah nervously whispered, continuing the conversation they'd had in her room, while getting ready to leave.

"There's nothing weird about him. You just have a crush on him, that's all." Lola teased.

"Eww, no."

"Why not? You have eyes. You saw him."

"He's a creep Lilly, I can just tell."

"Your "telling" skills are shot. He's perfectly normal."

"Then what about the look on your face when he came up to us at lunch?" Hannah asked, remembering the size of her friend's eyes when Andy had walked up to their table.

"How could you look calm when you're looking at _him? _He's a goddess."

"A goddess is a girl, Lilly." Hannah informed, smiling.

"He's a guy goddess, then."

"So. He's still weird." Hannah argued.

"Is not." Lilly shot back.

"I swear to god I saw him on the street corner. He was by my house Lilly. Tell me that's not weird."

"That's not weird." She paused, at the annoyed expression on her best friend's face. "He can't _already _know where you live, Miley. You're probably imagining things."

"Okay, fine. Whatever." She replied, breathlessly. "But when he breaks into my room and murders me in my sleep, you're not getting any of my shoes."

"Ohhh, I thought you meant the _other _street corner!" Lola cried, trying to get back on her friend's good side. "I definitely saw him. Very creepy. Very, very…uhhh…"

"Creepy?" Hannah offered.

"Yes, that's the word."

"This guy is gonna be worse than Jeff, Lills, I can already tell." Hannah worried, wiping the nervous sweat off of her forehead.

"Don't worry about it." Was all Lola said, ending her reassuring comment in a yawn, before sitting down on the small couch in the center of the room, to rest.

"Did you get _any _sleep last night? Why are you so tired?"

"My mom didn't want me to leave her alone all night. Some weird car's been parked outside all week, and she's convinced it's like, a rapist there to hack her head off with a spoon, or something." Lola yawned again, moving so that she was laying more horizontally on the uncomfortably prickly couch.

"Do you want some coffee or something? I think there's a machine down the hall." Hannah offered, staring into the full-length mirror on the wall, to fix her wig.

"I probably should…" Lola answered, sitting back up.

"Yeah, we wouldn't want you falling asleep in the closet again. If we have to look for you for two hours again, I'm going home without you."

"Thanks…" Lola replied, getting up from the itchy couch and leaving the room to find some caffeine.

Alone in her dressing room, Hannah arranged her things, while she waited for somebody to bring her the concert costumes. Minutes passed, and neither Lilly nor any member of the crew entered the room.

Just as Hannah decided to go look for somebody, an out of breath crew member rushed into the room.

"There is this really freaky janitor kid out there, and he's been following me around, so I got lost trying to avoid him, and so that's why I'm late. Sorry Hannah." The raven-haired woman before her apologized.

Hannah just shook off her apology and reached for a costume hanging from one of the many hangers dangling from the woman's wrist.

"Which one am I wearing first? I always get these two mixed up…" Hannah muttered, pulling aside a pair of nearly identical outfits.

"This one," The woman answered, reaching for the one on the coat-hanger in Hannah's left hand. She took it off of the contorted length of metal wire, and lay the rest of the clothes over the back of the couch, before helping Hannah get ready. By the time Hannah was ready to go, Lola still hadn't returned, and the black-haired woman, Rachel, set off to find her.

Just after Rachel turned to the right, however, Lola rushed in from the left, with a surprised look on her face. When Hannah saw it, however, she tried to smile, and only ended up looking ridiculous.

"What's wrong?" Hannah asked, hanging her concert outfits in the order she'd be wearing them, from a coat rack that would follow her to the very back of the stage, where's she'd both enter and exit from.

"Nothing." Lola replied, unpersuasively. She stepped into the room, hiccupped, and tripped over her own foot.

"Hannah Montana to the stage." A monotone voice called, stopping Hannah from questioning her friend any further.

"Just find somewhere to sit, so you don't hurt yourself." Hannah warned her friend, before rushing off to the stage.

Just as the beginning beats of the opening song started playing, Hannah noticed a flash of reddish-brown hair disappear around the corner. She instantly froze, although she couldn't be sure it was him. It _shouldn't_ be him. Plenty of other people had hair of that fiery hue. She was just being paranoid. Like Lilly's mom, with her death-by-spoon fears.

Somebody finally pushed her onto the stage, where she forgot all about her fears. She was in her element. Nothing could bother her here. She performed exceptionally well all night, but every time she left the stage, fear enveloped her once again. She knew she was being extremely unreasonable, but when you go to school with freaks like Jeff Castrowski, you can't help but be overly careful.

Something was telling her to stay away from this one. A part of her mind was pulling, trying to warn her. She desperately wanted to abide by it, and so she tried. Unfortunately, what she alone did, wasn't enough.

Six songs into the concert, there was a spark, a crash, and a million screams, as one of the large, hanging lights fell from the ceiling, nearly crushing Hannah, missing her by a fraction of an inch.

Being on stage, she was able to ignore it, able to disregard the feeling waiting in the back of her mind, the one that, once she was off stage, away from her fans, would tell her that it hadn't been an accident.

One of the dancers scooped the light off stage, and the show continued, with electricians hidden above, evaluating the rest of the lights, as if nothing had happened. Exactly the way Hannah wanted it to happen.

The rest of the concert went by without incident. After her third encore, Hannah finally left the stage, ignoring her fans, screaming for more, and listened to the voice in her head that told her that, for the sake of her voice, she should quit singing.

She _wanted _to stay on stage. Nothing overly bad could happen to her on stage, and if it did, they would see. However, she had to leave the stage. She wanted to get home, and go to sleep. It was late, and she'd end up like Lola eventually, asleep somewhere, while the concert went on without her.

"That was great, Hannah! Awesome concert!" Lola cried, the second she saw her best friend.

"You fell asleep in my dressing room, didn't you?" Hannah asked, knowingly.

"Maybe." Lola answered, not keeping eye contact. Hannah just laughed, before suggesting that Lola go get some more coffee, so that she could get into her house without being carried, or, most likely, dropped on the sidewalk outside, before the limo sped away.

Hannah made her way back to the dressing room, forgetting all about her previous worries, in her exhaustion. She wanted to get home as quickly as possible, so she began her long post-concert routine, by first kicking off her shoes, and, with them in hand, taking off the itchy shirt she was wearing over her favorite lacey tank-top. She was preoccupied enough to completely block out the sounds coming from behind her, and entered her dressing room, where she proceeded to take off her wig. She quickly discovered that that action was a huge mistake, when she heard a familiar, creepy, voice, whisper her name.

"Miley?" Andy Grant asked, standing in the open doorway, broom in hand. He was obviously the "really freaky janitor kid" Rachel had spoken of. And boy, was he ever creepy.

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**_I wasn't going to post this until Monday, when my time limit was up, but I won't be here Monday, so you're getting this now. So rejoice, read, and review, while I go rafting down Apple River. Great name, right?_**


	2. Chapter 2

**_So this chapter is shorter, but I couldn't exactly keep drawing out everything. It would be boring. It's long enough anyway. It's over 2000 words. Good enough, right?

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"Uhhhh…no. Who are you?" Miley squeaked, hastily putting her wig back on, dropping the shoes she'd been clutching.

"No, no no, you _are _Miley." He stated, his velvety, somehow appealing, voice making it's way into Hannah's ears, as he took a step towards her, a smile on his face.

"No...no I'm not." She whispered, as his menacing, but beautiful, hand reached for her face. She stepped backwards, until he had her up against the wall.

"I'm not going to hurt you." He said, his smooth voice not wavering at all as he lied.

Andy's hand brushed across her cheek, and rested with his four fingers along the side of her face, and his thumb rubbing her cheekbone. All the while, Miley was shaking in her skin. When he touched her, her body went into shock. It wouldn't quit telling her that something was horribly wrong, that she shouldn't let him touch her like that. It was begging her to do something, at this very moment.

"Don't touch me." She ordered, pushing past him, surprised by her composure. She hurried into the dressing room, and tried to close the door behind her, but he stuck his hand out to stop it. He was much stronger than she was, and he forced himself into the room with what looked like no effort at all.

He chuckled, the sound of it burning Miley's ears. She tried to back away from him, find a way to get out and go home, where she was safe. However, he seemed to know her every move before she did, making that impossible. He stepped towards her, causing her heart rate to skyrocket. Andy backed her into the sofa, and her knees buckled, causing her to fall onto it. He leaned over her, his right hand on the arm rest, and used his left hand to yank her wig off. Miley shook in her seat, in fear, while all he did was smile, and whisper,

"Just wait until the kids at school hear about this."

"No. You wouldn't." Miley countered, with surprising intensity.

"I thought you knew me well enough to know that...I would." He smiled at her, and her stomach nearly leapt out of her throat. She looked the other way, not wanting to see his face, and took a deep breath. Her secret. He was going to tell her secret. Her first thought was that it wouldn't be all that terrible. Sure she wouldn't be able to go out in public, but the perks almost leveled that out.

Then, Miley remembered how she'd felt on stage. How happy it made her. How else would she have gone on singing after the light had fallen if she didn't thoroughly love doing it? She thought about how exhilarated performing made her feel. She thought about how that would likely go away, once her fans became a bother, when performing became her every day, every second, her entire life. She liked things the way they were, and she didn't want to change them. She liked being normal sometimes. It gave her a break from the celebrity life. She didn't want anything to be different from the way it was.

"There is, however, one thing that would stop me. For the time being, at least." Andy murmured in her ear.

"What's that?" She asked, quietly, her face still turned away from his.

"Be my girlfriend." He whispered.

"What?" Miley asked, confused by such a simple request coming from somebody so obviously evil.

"You heard me." His smile disappeared, his mouth was a perfectly straight line across his lower face. His eyes, though, showed that he knew how this conversation would end. With him winning.

"And if I say no?"

"You've seen the movies. I think you know."

He'd kill her. That was what he was trying to say, right? What kind of whack-job threatens to kill a girl if she won't go out with him? And why did he want _Miley?_ Was there a reason all of the nutcases were attracted to her? He barely knew her, they'd only met hours before. What was so special about _her?_

"I...uhhh...?" Miley didn't know what she should say. Her secret was important to her, but any sane person would choose having their cover blown over being this guy's girlfriend. But then again, he had basically threatened to end her life if she refused. Did he mean it? Would he actually do it? She didn't know him that well, but Miley felt that he was telling the truth when he spoke.

"Is that a yes?" Andy asked, sighing impatiently.

"You're the craziest asshole I've ever met." Miley finally found the courage to say. He just smiled.

"Well that's that. I don't think I need to inform you of what will happen if you tell anybody about our little secret, correct?" He didn't wait for her to answer, and continued, "Then I guess I'll see you tomorrow, _baby._" And then he walked out. He left the room like nothing had gone on between the two of them, nothing at all.

Miley wanted to throw up. Not only because he'd called her baby, but because of the entire situation. She was scared, extremely terrified, and she just wanted to wake up. She was so sure this was just a nightmare. It had to be. But then again, the nauseating feeling in her stomach wasn't something she could dream up. You couldn't imagine this kind of unease. If this were a nightmare, she wouldn't be able to feel the contents of her stomach climbing up the wall, trying to get out, and away from the creep she was now publicly linked to.

She sat on the couch, pulling her knees up against her upset stomach, wrapping her arms around them, staring at her bare toes. When the door opened, she jumped nearly a foot out of her seat, something that didn't get by Lilly, who Miley had thought, for a moment, was her "boyfriend."

"What's wrong?" Lilly asked, sipping from the plastic cup that held her coffee.

"Nothing." Miley answered, a little too quickly. Lilly gave her a suspicious look, so Miley added, "I'm just tired. I should probably hurry up..." Lilly shrugged, finished her coffee, dumped it in the trash can, and went on to help Miley finish her after-concert routine. Several minutes passed silently, between the two, until Lilly asked,

"Are you _sure _you're okay?"

"Yes Lilly, I am. Okay?" Miley asked, her fear replaced with the strange angry sensation she was feeling. She desperately wanted to get home, and lock herself in her room where it was safe, but by talking, Lilly was holding her up.

Miley hurriedly pulled on the old ragged hooded sweatshirt, a size too big, that she'd started leaving her concerts in, and pulled the hood up, to cover her de-wigged head. Lilly kept her wig on, like she always had, and followed her abnormally worried friend out the door, and into the waiting limo.

Nobody said anything on the way home, not even Mr. Stewart. He seemed to sense that there was something wrong, something that even his horrible jokes couldn't fix. And so he was silent.

Lilly got out of the long black car at her house with only one word. "Bye." The rest of the ride home was even more awkward.

"Miley, what's wrong?" Mr. Stewart asked, like he thought he could fix it.

"Nothing daddy. I'm just tired." Miley answered quietly. Robby Ray nodded, but said nothing else for the rest of the journey.

Before the limousine came to a complete stop, the door was open, and Miley was rushing for the door, key in hand, without looking back. She slammed the door behind her, not bothering to keep it open for her father, and hurried up to her bedroom.

Miley absolutely dreaded going to school the next day. She thought about faking an illness, but she'd used every disease in the book, and there was no way her dad would ever buy it.

Laying on her bed, still in her post-concert Hannah clothes, Miley stared at the ceiling. She didn't dare close her eyes. He'd surely be beneath her eyelids, in her nightmares. Intead, She took in every bump in the textured ceiling, examining the crack forming in the wall near her closet. Her eyelids kept getting heavy though, and she found herself unable to keep them raised. She knew she should've taken a shower. She knew she should get up and at least change her clothes. She shouldn't be _trying _to stay awake. It was a school night, she didn't want to be tired in the morning. She didn't want to sleep though; she was afraid of what might lay on the other side of consciousness.

Eventually, Mr. Stewart came to check on his daughter, in the dead of night, when he himself should've been asleep. When he found her still awake, still fully dressed, he ignored the voice in his head telling him he should force her to tell him what was wrong, and instead, he just told her to go to bed.

Having been fully awoken, Miley didn't want to sleep anymore. She didn't know what to do though. She wanted to take a nice, hot, shower, but she couldn't do that. Everybody else was asleep, and the growling of the water heater would surely wake them.

She forced herself to get up, and at least change her clothes. She made sure to do it slowly, to push back the time when she's surely have to go to bed. Several minutes later though, her mind was awake, thinking about everything that had happened that night.

Miley made her way, zombie-like, back to her room, and tried to go to sleep, to rid her mind of the worries she was feeling, and give them over to her subconscious, where it wouldn't quite bother her as much. She needed to be awake in the morning, if she was going to deal with..._it._

She couldn't fall asleep. She was extremely tired, but her mind would _not _shut off. She wanted to rest, so so badly, but she couldn't. She lay there for what seemed like forever, until she gave up on sleeping, and turned the light back on. Closing her door the rest of the way, so the escaping light wouldn't alert her frequently waking father, she decided to read a book. That would occupy her overstuffed mind. She didn't _have_ book though. There were several magazines that had been sent to her, because of who was on the cover, but she didn't want to read those. It was all lies anyway. They'd find some way to twist her words around, make her look bad.

Like a light bulb flickering on, an idea came to Miley. She made her way across the room, and opened her first set of closet doors, and stared up at the top shelf. Her weary eyes found the box she'd been looking for, a box with her mother's old things. Mrs. Stewart had loved reading. Miley's memories of her mother were filled with ones of her mom sitting in the airy living room, with a book in her hand. She'd burned countless batches of cookies, too preoccupied with the fictional world of her book to bother with the real world. There had to be books in a box that had something to do with her mother.

Miley pulled it down, and set in on the floor, in the middle of an open space in the center of her room. She pulled the lid off, letting her mother's scent escape. She wanted to keep breathing it in, but she knew that if she kept letting it out, it wouldn't always be there. She had to save it.

She quickly pulled out a stack of books, before lightly forcing the lid back on, to hold in her mother. The stack of four books contained mostly crime novels, and she didn't want to read those. So she chose the fourth book, _The Kite Runner. _She remembered her mother buying this one, just before she died. She probably hadn't even had a chance to read it.

Miley flipped open to the first page, and leapt into the middle east, and a world where she wasn't important. Where there was no Andy Grant, and no reason to worry about the sure-to-be-horrible day ahead of her.

Miley read all through the night, seemingly enjoying reading as much as her mom had. She had more than one reason that she didn't put the book down. She wanted to know what happened, yes, but she was afraid that when she put it down, the fictional world would disappeared, and she'd be dropped, unarmed, back into the real world.

The sun started rising just as Miley came upon the last chapter. She didn't want it to end, but at the same time, she wanted to just get the day over with, so she could return to her room once again, and hide from the boy who would surely make her life hell.

Just as she finished the book, returned it to the box, and placed it back on the shelf, her alarm started ringing, telling her that the day she'd been dreading was finally here. She hurried half-consciously through her shower, put her hair in a pony tail, not bothering to mess with it, and hurried down to breakfast.

Mr. Stewart was making eggs and bacon, like he so often did. It depressed Miley, somehow, to know that life for everybody else would keep going on, as it always had, while hers had to change.

"Here you go, Miles." Robby announced, handing Miley her plate. She took it, and gently set it on the table, where it stayed, while she pushed its contents around with a fork. At exactly quarter to eight, Miley dumped the food and placed her plate in the sink, before hurriedly running upstairs to brush her teeth.

By the time she left the house, Miley was nearly ten minutes behind schedule. She didn't care though. Anything that would keep her from seeing him as long as possible was welcome.

The second she entered the schoolyard, Miley could sense that something was different. This wouldn't be just any ordinary day. The rest of her life would be completely different, from this moment on.

She slowly made her way into the courtyard, finding Lilly and Oliver at their usual table. Andy was nowhere in site, so she took a deep breath, relieved.

"Oh, hey Miley!" Lilly greeted, like she usually did, bent over the textbook for the class she had unfinished homework in.

"Hey." Miley replied, softly. She was about to sit down, when a hand touched the small of her back, with a sense of dominance in it. She immediately stiffened up, her body going numb in fear.

"Hey baby, have a good night?" Andy asked, his mouth telling a completely innocent story, his eyes, a completely sinister one.

Once she was able to move, Miley nodded, before turning away from him, to see the faces of her friends. Lilly looked how Miley had imagined she would. She had a smug look on her face, like she thought she'd been right about something. Oliver, on the other hand, was wearing a completely different expression. His face was a mixture of emotions, two of them much stronger than the others. The first was jealousy, the second was, for the first time in his life, enlightenment.


	3. Chapter 3

_**You do not know how close I came to deleting this. I seriously was about to. The pointer was over Yes, and I was about to do it, but then I thought, "Hmm. I have like half of the next chapter done. It would be a shame to waste it." so I clicked No instead, which I will probably regret, seeing as there is no doubt in my mind that this chapter will go over just as invisibly as the last two. It's a shame really, seeing as I bothered to rewrite this entire thing. So if this story disappears after this chapter is posted...you shouldn't be surprised. Okay? I've already given up on my whole "no deleting" resolution anyways, seeing as nobody really cares/notices. So yeah, I'm pretty sure that after this chapter is posted, the delete count will be raised to 34. It's not like there's much of a chance of me finishing this anyway, with it's lack of readers (for a story that was the result of a poll), so really you're missing out on nothing.**_

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The overwhelming feeling of inferiority that came over Miley just then was nearly crippling. She suddenly felt so unneeded, so...invisible.

She felt lightheaded, so before she passed out, Miley pulled out of Andy's grasp and sat down next to Oliver. Andy didn't object, as far as she knew, he was exceptionally good at acting like he wasn't pure evil.

"So you guys are..." Lilly's sentence trailed off as she caught the expression on Miley's face.

"Yep." Andy replied, moving so that he was standing behind Miley. He set his cold-blooded hands on her shoulders, sending shivers up and down her spine. Miley tried to look like it didn't bother her, she didn't want Lilly to worry about her.

"She called last night. Wouldn't take no for an answer." Andy explained, squeezing Miley's shoulders so hard but so inconspicuously that nobody else noticed it.

Nobody would believe that they were going out. He was _obviously _crazy, and there was _no _way she _ever _would've called him, and it was quite obvious that _he _was the one that liked _her_, and not the other way around. If he thought people would believe that story, he was more insane than she'd thought.

"Ohhh." Lilly breathed, believing it, gullible as she was. Oliver looked confused again, but Miley could tell that he knew there was something wrong. She attempted to put on a straight face, and look calm. She wasn't really sure if it worked, but just then, at that moment, the bell rang, signifying the four fifty minute classes she had away from Andy. Miley was relieved to get away from him, but she knew she'd only dread attending her post-lunch classes the entire morning.

All throughout first hour, Miley's ears, eyes, even her nose, wouldn't focus. She was there, but she wasn't there. She could barely see her teacher, she couldn't hear him, she couldn't even smell him. She didn't _want _to smell him, he smelled bad. All the same, it'd be nice to know she was focused enough that she _could _smell him.

Second hour was the same, and so was third. Everything was just a blur. All she could think about was him, and all she could see was him. She didn't want anything to do with him, but she just couldn't pull herself out of the hole that her mind was in, that was causing him to occupy her brain.

She dreaded fourth hour the most of her morning classes, knowing that it was the last one she'd even had a chance of paying attention in. She wasn't planning on learning anything for the rest of the year. If he was here, her mind wasn't.

The entire morning seemed to be going the same way, until the last ten minutes of class came upon them.

Pain was swirling around in Miley's head, either from too much thinking, or not enough eating. She leaned forward, resting her elbows on the desk, and held her head in her hands. The teacher didn't seem to care how much pain his students were in, because he asked her a question anyway. She didn't answer, so he asked again. And again. She couldn't hear him, couldn't see him, so she couldn't answer. All she was focused on at the moment, was her headache, and the cause of it, Andy Grant.

Somebody poked Miley in the back and she groaned, facing herself in the direction she thought the teacher was standing. She could just barely see him, her eyelids wouldn't stay open.

"Miss Stewart. I've asked you three times. Who killed Alexander Hamilton?"

To Miley, he was just mumbling. She watched him, as he finally came into focus, his brow furrowed, squinting at her.

"Uhh..." The pain in her head worsened, nearly knocking her unconscious. She grabbed a hold of the desk, mumbled "Abraham Lincoln." and then passed out.

The students in the many desks around Miley only sat there for a minute, laughing at her pathetic answer to what, if you were paying any attention, was an easy question. They finally noticed the teacher staring at her unconscious body, slumped over in her desk.

Miley's classmates immediately started freaking out, yelling at the teacher to do something. He only stood there, watching, as out of it as Miley had been all day. A minute later, he shook his head, and mumbled,

"Somebody go get the nurse, please."

Several students got up at once, excited that something was happening, and Mr. Dettner shooed them out the door, letting them all go at once, something he usually didn't allow.

When Miley woke up in the nurse's office, she didn't know where she was until the nurse popped into view. It all looked familiar to her, but she couldn't remember coming here, or falling asleep at all.

"Are you okay, honey?" The nurse, a plump, gray-haired woman asked her nicely, when she noticed that her eyes were open.

"Uhh...yeah...what happened?"

"You passed out in English, honey. Did you eat breakfast this morning?"

"Not very much of it. I was kind of preoccupied." Miley told her, as she thought about the large amount of both her dinner and her breakfast that had ended up in the garbage.

"Well, here. Eat these. You have lunch next, so you should be fine. Just remember to eat, honey, it's important." The nurse handed her a small package of crackers, staring at her with an expression on her face that told Miley she thought she had purposely starved herself. That was all she needed right now, people that thought she had an eating disorder.

The Nurse, Mrs. Clark, helped her out the door, just as the bell rang, signaling that it was time for lunch. Miley slowly made her way to the cafeteria, not really wanting to go. She'd rather take her crackers and run home, away from this place. Andy would find her there though. She was just as safe here as she would be anywhere else with a freak like Andy intent on stalking her. She went to lunch,despite her worries, and made her way through the lunch line, with several of the students in the line with her staring when they thought she wasn't looking, having heard that she'd passed out. The didn't say anything to her, but they held up the line, keeping her from Andy, and she was happy for that.

An apple, some mashed potatoes, and a disgusting cookie sat on Miley's lunch tray three minutes later, when she sat down next to Lilly. She was relieved to see that Andy wasn't sitting by them, and took a bite of her potatoes, while staring at the center of the table.

"So what happened? Everybody was saying you passed out."

"I didn't eat. I kind of forgot." She admitted, scooping up some more of her mashed potatoes.

"You forgot to eat? I could never forget to eat. Food is my life, I could never forget my life. If I didn't have life, I'd be..." Oliver started rambling, all the while leaving his lunch untouched.

"Dead?" Lilly finished his sentence.

"I was going to say lifeless, but if you have to be so morbid..."

"Ooh, "morbid" somebody learned a new word today." Lilly teased, leaning towards Miley, but speaking loud enough that she obviously had meant for Oliver to hear it.

"I've known what morbid means for a long time Lilly."

"Oh yeah? What's it mean then?" She asked, sceptically.

"Well I used it, so obviously I know what it means." Oliver mumbled, excusing himself from answering by shoving a huge spoonful of potatoes into his mouth.

Miley said nothing throughout the entire meal, despite Lilly's attempts to get her to talk. Miley wasn't sure that Lilly knew something was wrong, and was questioning her more because of Miley and Andy's supposed relationship than the realization that there was something wrong with her best friend.

Miley was silent, all through Lilly's questioning, about both Andy, and English class, until somebody cleared their throat loudly behind her. She didn't want to turn around, knowing fully well who it was, but at the same time, she didn't want to have her back to him. She slowly rotated in her seat, and her eyes came upon Andy, who was staring at her with his full of all sorts of emotions. She couldn't depict just one, he was so strange, so...weird. She couldn't even attempt to figure out what he was thinking.

"Come sit with me." He ordered, using a tone that made it seem friendly, while she knew he wouldn't be if her friends weren't there.

She felt she had no choice, and got up from the table, mumbling a goodbye to Lilly and Oliver, leaving her tray there. Andy grabbed it with one hand, and put the other on Miley's shoulder, steering her to an empty table in the far corner. He pulled out a seat for her, and she sat in it. He sat down across from her, and pushed the lunch tray across the table, so that it was in front of her. She didn't touch it, and only stared at him.

"What?" She asked him, sounding exactly how she felt. He only laughed, and started on his own lunch. Miley was, for some reason, surprised that he was eating. It didn't seem like people this inhumanly evil would bother eating normal, unhealthy, cafeteria food.

"You're not very convincing, you know. It's a good thing you're a singer, and not an actor." He smiled at her while he said this, which scared Miley a little bit. She knew he didn't mean it in a nice way.

"I don't really make things I don't want to do my number one priority." She told him, trying to sound brave.

"It should be your number one priority." He snapped, the anger he was feeling finally showing on his face, if only for a split second.

Miley timidly leaned away from him, further back in her seat, and watched him, waiting for him to get angry again.

His hand suddenly shot out, and grabbed a hold of hers tightly, like he knew she'd been planning on getting up.

"Oh. Your friends. I almost forgot about them. You know you can't tell them about our little negotiation, don't you? If you do... " The tone of his voice changed. His voice got lower, and she could barely hear it. "_I swear to god I will kill all of you. _Not just you. Them too. Is that clear?_"_

Miley nodded quickly, her eyes huge with fright. Her hand was going numb, with his fingers cutting off the circulation.

"You'll have to sit over here from now on." Andy stated, while he ate a spoonful of his own potatoes, still holding onto her her hand.

"What if I don't?" Miley asked, finally finding the words to test him. He only squeezed her hand tighter. She gasped in pain, wondering if her fingers were broken. It certainly felt like they were.

He let go of her hand, commanded her to "eat," and finished his own lunch, staring at her the whole time.

When the bell indicating the end of the lunch hour rang, much, much too late, Miley stayed in her seat, and so did Andy. He stared at her for a moment, like he was trying to read her mind, until they were interrupted. Miley wasn't sure who it was, the voice wasn't very familiar, and all she was paying attention to was Andy's deadly hands, right in front of her.

"Come on, you two love birds, the bell rang." Andy turned around, for a second, to see who had said it, and that was when Miley stood up. She hurried out of the cafeteria, and back to her locker. Surprisingly, Andy didn't show up until she was in her desk, her nose buried in the book she was supposed to be reading for her book report.

He quietly sat in the desk next to her, and didn't acknowledge her at all, throughout both of the classes they had together.

So far, the thing Miley hated the most about her "boyfriend" was how unpredictable he was. She'd fully expected him to whisper threats in her ear all afternoon, scaring her half to death, but that wasn't what he was doing. She'd rather he threaten her though, at least she'd see that coming.

Miley hurried to Study hall, and took her seat on Jake's right, before Andy got there.

"Your desk isn't gonna run away." Jake greeted, keeping his eyes on his Spanish book.

"What?" Miley asked, confused, as she set all of the books she didn't really need on the floor next to her desk, just as she had before.

"You practically tackled it. What are you in a hurry for?" He replied, looking up at her as he closed his book.

"Oh...I just, uhh...I don't know. I'm having a..." She couldn't think of a word to describe it. "weird...day."

"Oh. Me too. I got mauled by a herd of preteen girls on the corner of 8th and 14th this morning. The lunch ladies abducted me the second I got to lunch, still trying to get my autograph, after all these years." He paused, smiling. "On second thought...that's completely normal. For me, at least."

"Crazy autograph-crazy lunch ladies are the only reason I've got _you know who_." Miley joked, finally relaxing, after a _long _day of constant unease.

Jake's smile slowly faded away, and a confused expression replaced it.

"What?" Miley asked, suddenly worried that Jake was now turning on her.

"Umm...well...what is this?"

"What's what?" Miley asked, confused.

"I mean, why are you talking to me now? You seemed to be fine with acting like I didn't exist after we broke up." Jake explained, just as the bell rang. Everybody got much quieter, although still loud, for a group of teenagers like them, so both Miley and Jake lowered their voices.

"I know the friends thing didn't work out very well...but we can be friendly, can't we? It's not like either of has anybody else to talk to in here anyway..." She drifted off and they both looked around at the people surrounding them. A couple were picking their noses, in plain sight, several of them were asleep already, without the bell having rung yet, and the rest were absentmindedly staring into space.

"Yeah, you're definitely right about that last part..." Jake agreed, resting his casted arm on the book that was still laying on his desk.

"I don't want to be your enemy, Jake, that's all. We don't have to be best friends or anything." Miley stated, getting back to the subject.

"Yeah, I guess we don't." He paused for a second and turned towards her with a smile on his face. "If I told you Mikayla was me with a wig on, would you want to be enemies _then_?" Jake asked, making fun of her known hatred for her brunette pop star rival.

"If you told me that, I'd probably believe it." Miley answered.

"Oh, you're that gullible, are you?"

"No, I've just always had this suspicion that she was a guy in disguise." Jake laughed, and Miley couldn't help but smile.

"Hey, I'm kind of having a party Saturday at my house, it's just supposed to be a couple people, but you know as well as I how that will turn out. So you could, you know, swing by or something. It's just we haven't talked or anything in a while, and it'd be nice to catch up and stuff." He looked a little embarrassed as he invited her.

"Umm, yeah, sure, I'll ask my dad...or not...he probably wouldn't let me..."

"Then don't ask him. You don't have to stay all night or anything...it'd probably be safer that way...the crazy people usually show up towards the end."

"Then I won't stay til the end...I've had my fill of crazy people, I mean, there's my brother...and other people..." Jake laughed again, but Miley didn't have a chance to. That was when Andy walked in late, pass in hand.

"Mr. Grant, do you have a pass?" The teacher asked, peeking over the tops of his bifocals for a second. Andy held one up and explained why he was late. "I was helping Mrs. Parker carry some books."

He sat down at his desk, next to Miley, and smiled at her.

"Umm...but yeah, Jake, Saturday, right?" She asked, leaning towards Jake and away from Andy again.

"Yeah, starts at 7." He replied, looking confused.

Miley straightened up in her desk, and Andy leaned towards her.

"What's at 7?" He asked her.

"None of your business." She snapped back.

"Right now, everything is my business."

"I'm not gonna tell you." She told him, refusing to tell him.

"I'll find out."

"Then do it."

"I will."

"You won't" He smiled and quietly laughed.

Neither of them said anything for the rest of the hour, which scared Miley, because she knew that Andy was scheming, there in his desk with his fingers entwined and that smug look on his face.

When the bell rang, Miley hurried out of the room as quickly as she had hurried into it. She was halfway down the road before Andy caught up to her.

"Don't you want me to walk you home?" He asked, only a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

"No. I don't. Leave me alone." He just smiled again, and walked her home anyway.

When they arrived at Miley's house, Andy didn't appear to be ready to leave. He stayed on the porch and waited for her to open the door.

"You can go now." Miley told him.

"I want to meet your parents."

"_Parent._ And no, you can't. My dad's at work."

"No he's not. I just saw him through the window."

"That wasn't my dad." Miley replied, wishing they had curtains on the back windows.

"Is that why he's wearing a shirt that says 'Miley & Jackson's Daddy?'"

"What? He is not!" Miley shouted, throwing open the door.

"Dad! Why are you wearing that? Why do you even _have _that?" She complained, dropping her bag on the floor next to the door.

"The lady across the street made it for me. You don't like it?" Robby Ray asked, his tone suggesting that he thought it was just as embarrassing as his daughter thought it was.

"_No_! What are _those? _Kittens? Ew dad, go change. Please." Mr. Stewart grabbed a button up shirt off the couch and put it on over it.

"Just thought I'd be nice and wear it the one time."

"Use it as a dish rag, just _don't _wear that again." Miley replied, having forgotten that Andy was standing behind her.

"So who's this?" Mr. Stewart asked, motioning with his hand to Miley's 'boyfriend.'

"Oh, umm, dad this is..." He had obviously noticed the change in Miley's tone of voice, because Robby quit looking at Andy in that threatening "I'm her dad so don't screw up cause I have a gun" way and was now looking at his daughter in a more concerned way.

"Andrew Grant, Sir." Andy introduced himself.

"Ahh, so you guys are together now, or what?"

"Yeah." Andy replied, smiling at Miley, sounding completely normal and friendly, before he gave Miley a look that told her to say something.

"Umm, yeah, he wanted to meet you, so he walked me home." She said quickly. Miley didn't hear anything either of them said next, and sat down on the couch.

A couple of hours later, Andy was still there, and was helping Mr. Stewart make dinner. They seemed to be having fun, and that sickened Miley, because she knew Andy was only staying to make her uneasy.

While they were making some sort of casserole that didn't look very appetizing to Miley, the phone rang. It was Lilly, wanting to know if she and Oliver could come over after dinner so they could all study for the Geometry test they all had the next day. Miley said yes without asking her dad, willing to do anything that kept her mind off of Andy.

"Well I don't know Andrew, are you _sure_ you haven't made this before?" Mr. Stewart asked, tasting whatever it was that he was making.

"I don't cook very often, sir. My mom's a good cook though. I think it runs in the family."

"It must. Are you sure you can't stay?"

"I have to get home, sir. It was nice meeting you."

"Same here. You'll have to come over this weekend and watch the game with us." Mr. Stewart invited, as Andy put his shoes back on.

Miley groaned as quietly as she could, and got up from the couch as Andy said goodbye and left.

"Hey, where've you been?" Her dad asked, as he finally noticed that she was in the room.

"On the couch." Miley answered.

"You were? Are you sure?"

"Yes, daddy, I'm sure."

"Hmm. Well why didn't you join us? We could've use your _secret cooking skills_." He teased.

"Aw come on daddy, you know we don't speak of those." Miley replied, slowly becoming herself again as she remembered the last time she had attempted to cook something. "Umm, Lilly called, and she and Oliver are coming over at 7. We're gonna study for the geometry test tomorrow. Is that okay?"

"'Course it is." Robby Ray replied, as he put some aluminum foil over the cooling casserole he and Andy had concocted.

Miley went upstairs to change into something more comfortable, while her dad set the table. As she passed Jackson's room, he called out, his eyes not straying from his video game at all.

"What was all that noise down there?"

"Umm, dad and Andy were making dinner."

"Who's Andy?" Miley ignored his question and hurried to her room, where she changed into her favorite pair of jeans and one of her own concert t-shirts.

Back downstairs, Miley said nothing throughout dinner. She didn't pay any attention to what her dad and brother were saying either. She sat there, fork in hand, stirring her casserole up, taking a bite once in a while, even though she didn't like it, thinking about Andy, and how he was worming his way into her family now.

"You gonna finish that?" Jackson asked her, as he helped clear off the table.

"No." Miley mumbled. He took her plate, and Miley got up to help with the dishes.

"I'll finish those." Robby Ray told her, taking her place at the sink, obviously noticing how depressed she seemed.

It was nearly 7 anyway, so Miley picked her book bag up off the floor near the back door, where she'd left it, and brought it upstairs, where they'd be studying. The phone rang while she was up there, and before she had a chance to go back downstairs, Lilly and Oliver appeared in the doorway.

"Hey Miley, Oliver tripped over that weird garden gnome in your front yard and broke it's head off."

"You couldn't wait to embarrass me, could you?" Oliver asked, annoyed. "I'm sorry about that, by the way." He added, sitting down to rub his foot.

"It's okay. I've wanted to throw it into the ocean for a long time. It came with that crazy leg table dad _still_ hasn't got rid of."

"Oh. Well then, your welcome." Oliver replied, smiling as he took out his Geometry book.

"Why do we have to study for this anyway? It's a review chapter. _Most_ of us know how to add and subtract by now." Miley complained, emphasizing the word "most" for Oliver's benefit.

"I _know _how to add, Miley." He countered, flipping open to the third chapter, one the teacher had decided they would skip and save for last.

"We don't really have to study. My mom's boss's wedding is next week, and she just maxed out her credit card buying dresses for it. She wants me to help her pick one, and I refuse." Oliver straightened up just then, suddenly attentive.

"No Oliver, you can't go help her." Miley and Lilly said at the same time, before laughing.

They didn't end up studying that night. Instead, they flipped through the book, making fun of the people in the pictures. At 9:30, Mr. Stewart came up and told Oliver and Lilly that it was getting late, and they should leave, so the three of them all got up, and Miley followed them outside.

"I'm so glad the year's almost over." Lilly commented, once they were outside.

"Yeah, once summer comes, we'll be able to do this all the time, and we can stay up as late as we want."

"I love summer." Oliver sighed, looking kind of out of it.

"Not for the same reason we do." Miley and Lilly said in unison, again.

"You've got to stop doing that." Oliver said, as they laughed. "It's scary."

"Aww, little Ollie's scared of us!"

"Seriously guys, stop it." Oliver mumbled, after they did it again.

"I better get going. Maybe I can sneak in my window and mom won't keep me up all night with her dresses..." Lilly muttered, before hugging Miley and saying goodbye to both her and Oliver.

"See you tomorrow?" Oliver asked, rocking back and forth from one foot to the other.

"Of course I will, you're in my first hour class."

"Oh. Right. Well, goodbye then." He mumbled, before turning to leave.

Miley started heading back into the house, but Oliver stopped her.

"Hey Miley..." He mumbled.

"Yeah?" She asked, turning back around, to face him.

"Umm, what's up with you and Andy? You seem...scared of him. He didn't hurt you or something, did he?" Miley said nothing for a moment, trying to stop herself from telling him everything.

"No, Oliver, he's not. We're perfectly fine."

"Oh, okay. It's just, you didn't like him, yesterday, and now you're dating and stuff, I just wasn't sure."

"I just had a change of heart." Miley lied, wanting to get away before she spilled the beans. He didn't seem to believe her though. He stayed put and didn't look like he planned to leave. Miley had a strange, overwhelming feeling that Andy was watching them, and it worried her. She didn't want him to think she was telling Oliver anything.

"You're practically my sister, Miles, I don't want anything to happen to you."

"Nothing's gonna happen to me, Oliver. I'm fine. _We're _fine." Miley assured him, not knowing just how wrong she was.

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_**Geez, this chapter's almost 5,000 words, and it seems just as short as my old chapters...Stupid widescreen...**_

_**Anyway, review and I might just continue. You never know. I'm just not feeling it now, but if a bunch of you guys were to review...I might just decide to keep going.**_


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